The birth of a supernova

Supernovae are explosions that occur in the depths of space, they emit so much energy and light that if we look closely at the sky, there may appear a bright spot where before there was nothing, as if a new star had been born.

However, this is far from the reality, it is believed that supernovae happen when a giant star “dies” and is “swallowed” by its own gravity, that is, when one star “steals” the gas from another star. In both cases supernovae emerge differently, but with very common characteristics, a powerful explosion that manages to “tear” the body of stars and produce heavy chemical elements, said the Spanish newspaper ABC.

Something like this has happened to this supernova “baby”. It was born about 160 million years ago, in a galaxy known as NGC 7610 and the telescopes were able to capture its light on October 6, 2013. In this report, published in Nature Physics, scientists explained that this observation is the first If they could detect the first steps of a supernova, only three hours after its explosion.

Ofer Yaron, who is the first author of the study and also a researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, said that when they saw the images on the telescope they knew from the start that they “would have something really unique in their hands” since they could watch to this event from an early age. The name of this supernova of SN 2013fs was named, it will try to understand more about the first stages of the supernovas and, at the same time, to try to perceive also what happened to the great stars in the moment before its explosive death.

Thus, according to the data in this report, it was the explosion of a supergiant red star that originated the creation of a type II supernova, which are the most common. This star was surrounded by a disc of material for a year, before exploding. Then, in its “final act,” it lost its gas and mass elements and collapsed which, in turn, originated the supernova.

The problems for scientists are that you cannot predict when or where a supernova will occur, which is why it is most natural to see supernovae when they have already dispersed. So far, the most recent supernova has had a week of life (not counting its light, which is emitted millions of years ago).

Now, the youngest observed, she was only three hours old. Supernovae can only be observed for a year, until their brightness is extinguished.